Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen were not only artistic collaborators but also husband and wife. They must have had so much fun deciding together what to make: “Let’s make a huge clothespin!”…”No, let’s make a big shuttlecock!”…”Why don’t we make a giant trowel today?”…”I feel the urge to make a flashlight for King Kong.”…”You know what the world needs? A massive pair of binoculars!” Their “Binoculars” sculpture anchors the Chiat/Day Building in Los Angeles designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry. Coosje van Bruggen met Frank Gehry when they both served as adjudicators at Documenta, a contemporary art show in Kassel, Germany. Arne, my first friend in L.A., is from Kassel. In May, Arne gave me and Scott a grand tour of Kassel after we rendezvoused in Helsa. Yes, I share my name with a suburb of Kassel!

I took this photo of “Corridor Pin, Blue” last Sunday, just after a kind stranger had taken a group shot of me, Scott, Mama Chow, my Uncle Jeff, and my Auntie Lynne. We were in S.F. for a short but sweet family reunion: Jeff and Lynne live in Australia; Mama Chow lives in Canada; Scott now lives near Berkeley; and I live in L.A. Earlier that day, I had run 10 miles along the trails of Golden Gate Park while my family had wandered through the park’s Japanese Tea Garden and Conservatory of Flowers. It was a perfect day, really.

Yesterday afternoon, I ran some errands in Hollywood. As I drove north along the 101 from DTLA, I noticed that my car was running on fumes so I exited the freeway and headed toward the closest gas station, a Chevron on N Highland Avenue. When I saw that traffic was at a standstill near the gas station, I realized that I’d driven straight into Oscar madness!

Hollywood Avenue was shut down and a chain link fence kept the curious at bay. Having shepherded many visitors through the Hollywood and Highland Center to take photos of the Hollywood Sign, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and Kodak Theatre, I’m familiar with the nooks and crannies that afford a good view of the street below. I took this photo of the red carpet while standing in front of Sun Taco on the third floor of the Center. If you watch the ceremony tonight on TV, Sun Taco’s signage will be hidden from view by a glamorous gold curtain, which is hung each year to hide storefronts.

On the final night of Mama Chow’s Christmas visit, we walked to dinner at L.A. Prime atop The Westin Bonaventure where we admired the Los Angeles skyline, had a nice meal, and then fought over the bill as good Asian families do (Mama Chow won). On our way to the restaurant I took this photo of the Angels Flight railway, which we rode up Bunker Hill from Hill Street to California Plaza.

This photo was a happy accident. I had set the shutter speed at 15 seconds as it was dark outside, but then I forgot to turn off the camera’s flash. The camera captured the train in motion. The illuminated tower that hovers over the train is Los Angeles City Hall. City Hall, which was completed in 1928, wasn’t even around when Angels Flight was built. A plaque mounted onto a boulder next to the train station reads:

Built in 1901 by Colonel J.W. Eddy, lawyer, engineer, and friend of President Abraham Lincoln, Angels Flight is said to be the world’s shortest incorporated railway. The counterbalanced cars, controlled by cables, travel a 33 percent grade for 315 feet [96 meters]. It is estimated that Angels Flight has carried more passengers per mile [1.6 km] than any other railway in the world, over a hundred million in its first fifty years. This incline railway is a public utility operating under a franchise granted by the City of Los Angeles.

Between 1901 and 1969, the railway ran along tracks which connected Hill Street and Olive Street at Third Street. The railway was dismantled in 1969 to make way for redevelopment and was finally re-constructed in 1996 to operate at its current location until 2001, when its gear train failed. The railcar at the top of the hill, Sinai, hurtled down the hill and crashed into the other railcar, Olivet. One man died and seven people were injured in this accident. Angels Flight re-opened in March 2010 and a one-way ticket to ride now costs 25 cents.

In the film “500 Days of Summer” (2009), the main character Tom takes his girlfriend Summer to Angels Knoll Park. The park is his favorite spot in Los Angeles as he can look out over a number of buildings he likes, although the view is spoiled by parking lots. Seven dots of white light shine from these parking lots in my photo. The Angels Flight railway runs through Angels Knoll Park.

The Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a unique setting to watch a film on a Saturday night. Cinespia is in its tenth season of transforming this famous cemetery into a moonlit cinema. Last weekend, we watched “The Sting” (1973) with 3,000 other movie lovers and the spirits of screen legends interred nearby.

As the sun set, we enjoyed a picnic with our Canadian friends Ethan and Zarene on the grass beside the mausoleum which holds Rudolph Valentino’s tomb. The lawn was cool and damp so we sat on an unzipped sleeping bag as we dug into stromboli, salad, corn on the cob, and cake. The group next to us huddled around a tablecloth covered in tea lights, so we were in fine company dining al fresco. DJs Hair and Carlos Niño spun Bob Dylan and Portishead to keep the crowd feeling groovy. Most smokers were kind enough to congregate near the porta-potties next to a field of parked cars. Scott was smart to pack our camping headlamps so that we could find our way in the dark.

Just after sunset, “The Sting” was projected onto the side of Valentino’s mausoleum. “The Sting” stars Robert Redford and the late Paul Newman as Depression-era grifters who con a mob boss out of half a million dollars. The film won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director in 1974. It’s fun and exciting to watch – such a crowd-pleaser!

Last week, “Mad Men” was filming an episode a couple blocks from our loft in downtown L.A. As I waited to meet Jon Hamm (who plays Don Draper on the series), I took this photo of his co-star Jared Harris (who plays Lane Pryce, Don Draper’s former British overlord / new business partner). The crew member I was speaking with as I snapped this shot was surprised that the British actor has fans in America.

One of my favourite retail haunts in L.A. is Amoeba Music. Amoeba Music is the world’s largest independent record store: new and used vinyl, CDs, DVDs, posters, T-shirts… it’s all there. Our French friends Aude and Adrien brought us to the Haight-Ashbury store in San Francisco last summer and when we moved to L.A. last fall, I was eager to explore the Hollywood store on Sunset Blvd. The original store is still open on Telegraph St. in Berkeley.

Recently, I bought a used DVD of “The Rachel Papers” (1989) at Amoeba Music. I was excited to find it as I had seen the film once on late-night TV in the early 1990s. I had liked the film enough to read the novel, which is by Martin Amis. Scott watched the film with me and we’re sorry to report it hasn’t aged well despite its interesting cast: Ione Skye, Jonathan Pryce, James Spader, and you guessed it, Jared Harris. Although Jared Harris once lamented on NPR that being a chameleon-like actor is “good for the craft; crap for the career” and that “in this country, a good actor is confused with a famous actor”, we recognized him right away and are happy that he’s still a good actor and now a famous one, too.

“I found my love in Avalon beside the bay / I left my love in Avalon and sailed away…” Unlike Nat King Cole, I lost my love near Avalon this past weekend.

On Sunday, I took a wrong turn near the end of our hike on Catalina Island. That morning, we had taken a bus from Avalon up to the Airport in the Sky which is located 1,602 ft (488 m) above sea level. After a delicious picnic with our French friends Aude and Adrien, we hiked five miles before hopping on a bus headed towards Avalon. Along the way, we saw several bison. Bison aren’t endemic to the area: fourteen bison were brought to Catalina in 1924 during the filming of Zane Grey’s “The Vanishing American” (1925). After shooting wrapped, the bison were set free to roam and propagate on the island. Before the Catalina Island Conservancy thinned the herd to its current count of 150 to 200 animals, there were as many as 600 big brown beasts dotting the island’s grassy hills.

Two miles from Avalon, we got off the bus so that we could walk under the eucalyptus trees which line Stagecoach Road. We were on the outskirts of town when I lagged behind (again) to take photos. Scott, Aude and Adrien kept walking as they assumed that I would eventually catch up with them. This had been our routine all afternoon. Unfortunately, I assumed that Scott had taken a staircase carved into the hill between two houses, which was a more adventurous path than sticking to the main road. After I descended the staircase and walked for a bit, I realized that my party was nowhere in sight. By then, I couldn’t find the staircase again, so the best thing I could do was walk through Avalon back to our campsite at Hermit Gulch. Fortunately, Scott and our friends returned to our campsite as well once they realized I had taken a wrong turn and wandered away. I’m sorry my stupidity caused them to worry and I’m happy we weren’t apart for long. We cleaned up and went for a satisfying dinner at The Lobster Trap in Avalon: the cioppino is excellent.

Ironically, I was in a similar situation two years ago when I hiked the Manly to Spit Bridge Scenic Walkway near Sydney, Australia with Mama Chow. During that hike, I was the one who had walked ahead on the trail and she was the one who had lagged behind to take photos. Neither of us realized that there was a fork in the trail (it wasn’t on the map). We took different paths and because hers turned out to be a shortcut, she ended up a mile ahead of me: hikers I met on the trail told me that they had seen a small Asian woman with a big hat and that I needed to run if I was to catch up to her! We were very relieved to find each other. We finished the hike, took a taxi back to Sydney, and celebrated our final night in Australia by going out for sushi.

The Bronson Caves in Griffith Park are best known as the Bat Cave where Batman and Robin parked the Batmobile in the 1960s when they weren’t busy saving the day in Gotham City. The Caves were once part of a quarry which produced crushed rock used to pave streets in nearby Hollywood a century ago. If you drive north on N. Bronson Avenue into Griffith Park, the road will lead you to a parking lot near the Caves. If you drive south on N. Bronson Avenue to Melrose Avenue, it will lead you to the Bronson Gate of Paramount Pictures. In 1954, an actor named Charles Buchinsky took his stage name from this Gate. You might know and love him as “classic tough guy” Charles Bronson, star of “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), “The Great Escape” (1963), and “The Dirty Dozen” (1967).

Last weekend, we explored the Bronson Caves with our Austrian friends Eleonore and Florian. We found ourselves in the middle of an indie Sci-Fi Fantasy film set. Cars parked on the dirt road leading up to the Caves displayed dashboard permits with the word “Hirokin” on them, so watch out for “Hirokin“: it’s coming soon to a theatre near you. We walked into a cave and found a giant plaster obelisk, fake boulders, and a member of the crew moving lights and cables around in the dark. Beyond this cave, there was a tent village. Actors dressed in linen tunics walked past a green screen to buy lunch at a snack truck parked in a makeshift lot. On Mt. Lee a mile (1.6 km) away, the Hollywood Sign shone like a beacon over the set, a silent reminder to those toiling in the heat of what dreams may come: fame, fortune, a percentage of the box-office…